SKY: Cheetah sprinting to extinction with just 7,100 left in the wild – experts

CHRISTOPHE BEAUDUFE/AFP/Getty Images

The cheetah should now be defined as “endangered” instead of “vulnerable” on a watch list of threatened species, a study says.

Experts have warned cheetahs are much more at risk of extinction than previously thought.

It is estimated that there are just 7,100 left in the wild – across just 9% of the territory they used to live in, according to a study by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

Populations in Asia have been most affected, with only 50 of the animals left in Iran.

In Zimbabwe, cheetah numbers have plummeted by 85% in little more than a decade.

The Guardian: Cheetah ‘more vulnerable to extinction than previously thought’

Sarah Durant/ZSL/PA

Urgent action is needed to stop the cheetah – the world’s fastest land animal – becoming extinct, experts have warned.

Scientists estimate that only 7,100 of the fleet-footed cats remain in the wild, occupying 9% of the territory they once lived in. Asiatic populations have been hit the hardest, with fewer than 50 surviving in Iran, according to an investigation led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

In Zimbabwe, cheetah numbers have plummeted by 85% in little more than a decade.

The cheetah’s dramatic decline has prompted calls for the animal’s status to be upgraded from “vulnerable” to “endangered” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species.

The Independent: Cheetahs, the world’s fastest land animal, heading for extinction, experts warn

Urgent action is needed to stop the cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal, from becoming extinct, experts have warned.

Scientists estimate that just 7,100 of the fleet-footed cats remain in the wild, occupying just nine per cent of the territory they once lived in.

Asiatic populations have been hit the hardest with fewer than 50 individuals surviving in Iran, according to a new investigation led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

In Zimbabwe, cheetah numbers have plummeted by 85 per cent in little more than a decade.

Only about 7,100 cheetahs remain in the world and their numbers are quickly dwindling, putting them at risk of extinction, according to new research.

Cheetahs should be re-categorized as “endangered” instead of their current status as “vulnerable” on the list of threatened species maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, researchers said.

Cheetahs have lost 91% of their historic habitat, which once encompassed areas throughout Africa and southwest Asia. Cheetahs have all but disappeared in Asia, with fewer than 50 remaining in Iran, according to research published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Huffington Post: Cheetahs Are Far Closer To Extinction Than We Realized

A major conservation group is urging environmental leaders to list cheetahs as an endangered species, warning that populations of the big cats have crashed dramatically across the African continent in just a few decades.

Only 7,100 cheetahs, the world’s fastest land animal, are left in the wild, according to a new report released Monday by the predator conservation group Panthera, the Zoological Society of London and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Those few remaining populations have been forced to live in just 9 percent of the species’ historic range in pockets of Africa and a small region in Iran as protected areas dwindle in the face of human expansion.

The Times: Cheetahs teeter on brink of extinction

Stuart Graham

There are estimated to be only 7,100 cheetahs left in the wild PA:Press Association

The encroachment of humans, poaching and the trade in exotic pets has dramatically reduced the world’s cheetah population to 7,100. The cats have virtually been wiped out in Zimbabwe and Iran in the past decade, a new study has found.

Cheetahs, which are the world’s fastest land animals and can run at 29m per second, are dying out largely due to a low availability of prey. Illegal hunting, wounds inflicted by snares and demand for their skins are also contributing factors, according to the study, led by the Zoological Society of London and Panthera and Wildlife Conservation Society.

Wealthy collectors buying cubs as vanity pets and speeding motorists in game reserves such as Kruger National Park in South Africa, are also responsible for the dwindling . . .

Asiatic populations have been hit the hardest with fewer than 50 individuals surviving in Iran, according to a new investigation led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

The Mail Online: Cheetah numbers decline as African habitat shrinks

In this Aug. 22, 2012 photo, a cheetah is photographed in the Tamboti Game Resrve, near Lephalale, South Africa. Amid population declines for many wildlife species in Africa, conservationists are sounding alarm bells for the cheetah, the fastest animal on land, where there are an estimated 7,100 cheetahs remaining across Africa and in a small area in Iran. (AP Photo/Kevin Anderson)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Amid population declines for many wildlife species in Africa, conservationists are sounding alarm bells for the cheetah, the fastest animal on land.

An estimated 7,100 cheetahs remain in the wild across Africa and in a small area of Iran, and human encroachment has pushed the wide-ranging predator out of 91 percent of its historic habitat, according to a study published on Monday.

Consequently, the cheetah should be defined as “endangered” instead of the less serious “vulnerable” on an official watch list of threatened species worldwide, the study said.

“This period is really crunch time for species like cheetah that need these big areas,” said Sarah Durant, a cheetah specialist at the Zoological Society of London and the lead author of the report published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Sun: LESSER SPOTTED The world’s fastest animal the cheetah is hurtling towards extinction thanks to hunting and the exotic pet trade

Scientists estimate that just 7,100 of the fleet-footed cats remain in the wild, occupying just nine per cent of the territory they once lived in.

Asiatic populations have been hit the hardest with fewer than 50 individuals surviving in Iran, according to a new investigation led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

In Zimbabwe, cheetah numbers have plummeted by 85% in little more than a decade.

The cheetah’s dramatic decline has now prompted calls for the animal’s status to be upgraded from “vulnerable” to “endangered” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species.